Anne Sowards of ACE/ROC is putting out the call for steampunk books asking authors to tell their agents to submit to her. Angela James of Samhain is looking for the same (although probably of a romance bent). Katiebabs has a three part round up of what steampunk is all about. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).

Publishing apparently loves its videos. First it was HarperCollins and now Penguin has new multimedia including “The Publisher’s Office”. Episode 1 features JR Ward and Berkley Executive Editor, Cindy Hwang, talking about paranormals. There’s something a little hilarious about Ward wearing her sunglasses with a night backdrop.

RRRJessica wrote about polyamorous romances and culture. Life reflecting fiction or fiction reflecting life? For me, polyamorous relationships fall squarely in the fantasy category.

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Jane Litte is the founder of Dear Author, a lawyer, and a lover of pencil skirts. She self publishes NA and contemporaries (and publishes with Berkley and Montlake) and spends her downtime reading romances and writing about them. Her TBR pile is much larger than the one shown in the picture and not as pretty.
You can reach Jane by email at jane @ dearauthor dot com

Konrath rocks. I’ve always admired his willingness to try a little bit of everything and am happy for him. $100 a day isn’t anything to sneeze about as far as an extra income stream goes. Not sure it’s anything to sneeze at anyway since $700 a week is still a good amount of money for a lot of people.

And I’m with you on poly relationships falling squarely in the fantasy category. It’s hard enough for most “couples” to have a happily ever after, let alone when you start adding other people to the mix.

Thanks for the links, or I wouldn’t have seen Katiebabs steampunk interviews. Adam was tremendous, and if his blogging is an indication of his novel writing chops, his humongous steampunk series will get snatched up quickly.

Ward wears sunglasses because she is sensitive to light, according to what I’ve read. Whether that means photophobia specifically, I don’t know. As someone who suffered badly from migraines and had to wear sunglasses in even low light and on rainy days, I completely understand the need to do that.

For me, polyamorous relationships fall squarely in the fantasy category.

I hope that what you mean by this (because the wording is ambiguous) is “It’s not something that would work for me in real life,” not “It’s not something that works for anyone in real life,” because it does work well for many people.

@Julia Sullivan I know that there are people who live this lifestyle but none I know personally and so everything I read has no bearing in “real life” for me. Like when I read it, I have a hard time saying “Oh this could never happen” because I don’t know what happens. If that makes any sense.

Having been in a few polyamorous relationships I can say that they are real and possible. They are twice s difficult as any ‘regular’ relationship due to the addition of a third party, or more in some cases. There are also several groups of thoughts about polyamorous relationships.Those that subscribe to the treat it like any other relationship theory, my personal fav. The second theory is one of primary and secondary partners. There is a primary couple suplemented by secondary partners establising a clear pecking order. Personally, I find the later theory a bit ew for my tastes, but to each his own.

I can say that in my relationships they were great experiences. I cared about my partners deeply as I know they did me. It starts like any relationship and ends just as easily. Romance novels have taken this ‘menage’ theory and sexualized it just as much as romance novels have sexualized any relationship. They are real, exist and can be as sincere or as casual as any ‘regular’ relationship.

On the primary/secondary thing of poly relationships… Someone I knew who was poly did the primary/secondary thing but felt it was important that every secondary have their own primary. Maybe that does or doesn’t work out in practice… i.e. what happens if you have a primary and secondary partner and your primary partner leaves but you’re still someone’s secondary and they have another primary?

Though I think even if you don’t “define” people and relationships according to a hierarchy, you’re going to bond more closely with some people than others, so there is a hierarchy even if it’s not stated. It’s the same with non-sexual friendships, a lot of people have a best friend and other friends they aren’t as close to.

Though I think probably the most healthy view of poly I ever saw was defining a lover as a friend you had sex with. Because it seems that it’s at the sex part where everything gets weird for people and lots of people don’t like to share. (obviously non-poly people)

Yeah I’ve known people who use the primary/secondary theory in poly relationships. You’re completely correct about the idea of the secondary having a primary of their own in some cases. I’ve seen t work in theory. I’ve never seen it work log in practice. I’ve seen a lot of relationships where the primary relationship breaks up and one partner and then there is either a fight for the secondary partner, the relationship breaks up competely, or the secondary ‘picks a side’ and remains with one of the two (usually whoever they are closer with). I’ve seen a lot of people try to make that work while the primary searches for anothr primary partner and the secondary sticks around in the mean time. Personally I don’t think that there is much that can go right in a relationship where your grading/ ranking partners, but for some people its great. Like I said, to each his own. Some people enjoy the definition in the relationship from those I’ve talked to. It seems to create a greater sense of casualness between the secondary and the primary so there isn’t behid the scenes tension not being addressed.

Inevitably there is going to be a ‘weaker’ and stronger relationships in a poly. That’s why I say its twice as difficult to maintain a relationship with two people at once. It requires a lot of openness and honesty that a great many people can’t handle that level of intimacy. The easiest part is the sex, the rest is where it gets complicated. Things as simple as going out for a meal or grocery shopping together have to be negotiated. Do we go out as a threesome? How do we act? Are we all comfortable with PDA? Do we tell friends? Parents? Everything public interaction goes under the microscope. Then there are the internal things that have to be addressed. If two of us go out together is that okay? Is sex between just two of us okay? Honestly some of the best relationships I’ve ever had have been poly, but there is a lot more than sex that goes under the microscope. Many people find out that they just can’t share.

Well, thanks for the very kind comments, Ciar! I’m very pleased that people seemed to have enjoyed my guest posts on Kate’s blog. I should have a steampunk recommended reading list up there shortly, which I hope will be useful for people keen to explore this terrific genre.

Cheers,

Adam

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